Sword Art Online doesn't fail in plot, the plot is decent - although I hate how it can't seem to stick in one genre because it doesn't do genre crossing well, it fails in execution (see: the three DEMs in episode 14).

I just really dislike that Kirito is perfect at everything and how Asuna's captivity is being portrayed.

People on this site will 5/5 some of the crappiest anime I've ever seen and defend them to the death, but when something like this gets mainstream popularity suddenly it's an extremely flawed anime that needs to be dissected with a microscope.

Silly Crunchyroll community.

I am now imagining you making this post with that specific Kyon (your avatar) expression

Although, I find the sister (or cousin, whatever she is) character a bit annoying.

In other words, I can't wait for when she sees Kirito back with Asuna!

*Arc

Learn to spell, you're older than me.

The plot is not fine. They made it worst sadly.

I guess it's going down from ep14 but at least its still going on. the anime could have stop when every body log out, just glad it didn't. SAO was at the top of my anime watch list in till i found out Initial D Fifth Stage came out not to long ago, all over that now X3

I've been quite enjoying the entire series thus far. Sure things slowed down a little bit for Kirito, but for Asuna, she is still in a very dire situation, along with all those who are having their minds altered. Asuna has the possibility of having Kirito erased from her memory completely, and in my opinion, that would be a fate worse than dying for both her, and Kirito. She would be marrying someone she didn't want to marry, and he would be in love with a girl who no longer even knew he existed.

If you follow along with the entirety of the plot you'll see that there are still people in danger, possibly even Kirito if the system chooses at random.

I can agree to an extent. I thought it was a little corny that they moved to a second game and I was also quite surprised by the forbidden love (Also, the tentacles in episode 21 were making me a little nervous lol), but even after all of that I really do enjoy this show. There hasn't been an episode yet that I disliked.

Also, you have to consider the fact that while Kirito's life is no longer in danger Asuna's is.

In his hurry to save Asuna, he never made the switch to the Amusphere, and is using his dangerous old Nervegear. If the antagonist were to find him out he would likely have the power to easily fry his brain.

Man isn't it awful when an anime sticks to the source material? I bet half the people complaining about the plot are the same people that complain when an anime doesn't follow the manga.

Puh-lease, spare me. For any other show, I wouldn't have cared. But for SAO? Nope... The light novels are rubbish. The only real difference between the source material and the anime in this case, is the parts that the anime decides to skip. After all, the tentacle monsters are in the light novels as well.

I tried reading the manga, but it's even worse than the anime.

Also, the manga isn't the source material, in case you didn't realise.

I found the Light Novels to be a real page turner. SAO is only the second anime I've watched that's based on a LN that interested me enough to actually read them all (the first being Haruhi Suzumiya). I've been pretty darn impressed with these stories. SAO and ALO have been the most interesting arcs, but they've all been a pretty good read.

Anime is full of disappointments. That's a life lesson being taught through a relatively safe medium. You don't always get what you want, and all too often, the result of paying your attention (possibly even your emotions), into something unreal might leave you feeling a bit empty.

These ordered illusions we dig have a way of systematically building us up just to let us down. If you want the traditional happy ending in your stories, then maybe anime isn't the form of entertainment, or art, you should be into, because we tend to hate spoilers clarifying whether or not the plot turns to some shade of shit down the pipe. There's plenty of mindful cartooning from outside Japan (the country of many an otaku's superior, genius overlords) which never takes itself seriously, but is kind enough for not stomping your precious ego to some painful extent.

In my opinion the plot started to go downhill when Kirito and Asuna went to go play family back around episode 10. Episode 14 is probably what I would call the worst in the series so far due to the deus ex machinas they pulled along with the villain's motivation and Kirito and Asuna giving a peaceful farewell to him. Its pretty ridiculous how girls are constantly falling all over Kirito too and Suguha's developments with Kirito are completely pointless as you knew how it was going to end right when it started. Still its a fair series. The action is done pretty well, the overall story isn't bad, and its pretty good at creating suspense.

I strongly agree with you. The whole "mama" and "papa" crap was weird. The whole family crap was weird.

Sorry, but if anyone is having high expectations from this show - you should try to look at it differently. Thinking highly of this show is akin to being delusional.

Lets face the facts:

Kirito is Gary Stue.

For those that don't know what a Gary Stue is, it's the male version of a Mary Sue.

A fictional character, usually female, whose implausible talents and likeableness weaken the story.

Every time he has been struggling in a battle, he has called upon his Gary Stue powers to win the fight.

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

Remember the last fight in the SAO MMO? That's the perfect example of Gary Stue being Gary Stue. This happened in an MMO, It doesn't matter what kind of excuses you can think of to defend the awful development in that fight. With the way Kirito fought and consequently gave up; he should have lost. But praise the Gary Stue powers, suddenly he found hidden strength in the despair of his loved one being dead and SOMEHOW managed to power-up despite being realistically dead in the mmo (Yes he was, his Health Bar was gone when he "defeated" the bad guy).

Every female character in this show who has been given a name, has fallen in love with Kirito.
No seriously, the only way to avoid falling in love with Kirito if you are a female character is to never tell your name.

The "Beater/Cheater" haters. Absolutely moronic to a degree that can't even be explained because it was so stupid.
Why the hell would you have a freaking witch-hunt against the VERY PEOPLE WHO COULD SAVE YOU FROM THE MMO??

Deus Ex Machina. Kirito gets paralysed and just as he is about to die; 'LO AND BEHOLD THERE IS ASUNA!
Just in time to rescue him from an untimely death! Phew! What a coincident!

Kirito picks the WEAKEST race, gets told illusions are useless, somehow managed to become one of the bosses from the SAO MMO and BITES A PLAYER.
Lets look at the facts again. ILLUSION. Not transformation or anything similar. ILLUSION. You shouldn't be able to hurt anyone like Kirito did with an illusion. But it's okay! Because he is Gary Stue! Therefore his spells breaks the game.

Kirito beats a highly skilled player in ALO.

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

There is nothing wrong with that. Except for one detail. That player was wearing the best gear you could obtain the game so far, and Kirito was wearing VENDOR TRASH. But it's okay, thanks to his Gary Stue powers and by stealing his cousin's weapon, he powered up 1000x times and owned everyone.

Lets not forget that the creator of this show is trying to pander to every fanservice group there is.
Big boobs? Check. Loli? Check. Implied incest brother/sister love? Check (I know they are cousins, Kirito doesn't and before it was revealed nobody else did). TENTACLE RAPE? Check. Boring characters with little to no personality? Check. Make it easy for fans to self-insert into the characters? Check.

Every female character in this game apparently can't handle their own troubles. But it's okay, because Kirito is ready to save the day for the HELPLESS WOMEN.

Asuna was helpless against pressure. Asuna loves cooking (hurf durf women kitchen sandwich), she is apparently *perfect*, she is submissive towards Kirito almost all the time. Oh and lets not forget:

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

I like Asuna's parents. Because they are just doing what's best for their daughter! Marrying her off to a man who is twice as old and they don't even know if she approves of it or not! Or if she loves anyone else. After all, family doesn't matter - money does. Oh and a stupid plot.

Anyway, enough about the SAO MMO.

The new bad guy in the ALO arc is the blandest shittiest bad guy ever.

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

He has zero depth to his personality. It's just "haha I'm super evil! I will torment these players and get valuable mind control data, and get super rich! And I'll steal this woman from you because I can! Oh, and I might brain-wash her, because I can. There is no real motive behind. Just because I'm evil. You know. Evil. That's why. Evil and CREATING A FALSE IMPENDING DOOM OF NTR - Oh what was that about pandering to every fetish and whatnot? Yeahh......

Sorry, but the light novels are hardly better.

This show had tons of potential, but it squandered most of it because it wanted to pander to the audience sexual desires. And I'm getting tired of the SO ANGSTY Kirito. Mostly I'm just tired of him being Gary Stue.

Oh and did I mention that Kirito is an MMO addict? Because he is. Just re-watch that scene where the bartender dude shows him the ALO game. He was clearly more focused on the game itself and keen on playing it, and than rescuing Asuna - till the bartende dude just coughed to break the MMO-addiction-spell. Kirito's "flawless never back down" moral compass gets tedious as well.

At the end of the day, I only watch this show to laugh at how bad it is.

Here, have an image that sum up the current arc of SAO quite nicely:

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

Not sure if you copy and pasted this, but if you didn't, I'm really impressed. I actually agree on all these points. Kirito is a Gary Stue character. But I rarely see a Gary Stue character in all the animes I watched. All the battles I've seen Kirito in, he has won. And that admin guy pretty much cheated so that's how Kirito lost before. But I think they did it for a reason. Asuna was a bad heroine. Some of her repetitive tsundere crap got in my nerves. I'm alright with the loli crap, because the anime proves a point about MMO's being infested with little 8-12 year olds. Man I hate those kids. But yeah. I reckon they tried to make Kirito way too badass. But that's not the only thing I was concerned about. Because there was something I actually HATED about the anime.

Sorry, but if anyone is having high expectations from this show - you should try to look at it differently. Thinking highly of this show is akin to being delusional.

Lets face the facts:

Kirito is Gary Stue.

For those that don't know what a Gary Stue is, it's the male version of a Mary Sue.

A fictional character, usually female, whose implausible talents and likeableness weaken the story.

Every time he has been struggling in a battle, he has called upon his Gary Stue powers to win the fight.

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

Remember the last fight in the SAO MMO? That's the perfect example of Gary Stue being Gary Stue. This happened in an MMO, It doesn't matter what kind of excuses you can think of to defend the awful development in that fight. With the way Kirito fought and consequently gave up; he should have lost. But praise the Gary Stue powers, suddenly he found hidden strength in the despair of his loved one being dead and SOMEHOW managed to power-up despite being realistically dead in the mmo (Yes he was, his Health Bar was gone when he "defeated" the bad guy).

Every female character in this show who has been given a name, has fallen in love with Kirito.
No seriously, the only way to avoid falling in love with Kirito if you are a female character is to never tell your name.

The "Beater/Cheater" haters. Absolutely moronic to a degree that can't even be explained because it was so stupid.
Why the hell would you have a freaking witch-hunt against the VERY PEOPLE WHO COULD SAVE YOU FROM THE MMO??

Deus Ex Machina. Kirito gets paralysed and just as he is about to die; 'LO AND BEHOLD THERE IS ASUNA!
Just in time to rescue him from an untimely death! Phew! What a coincident!

Kirito picks the WEAKEST race, gets told illusions are useless, somehow managed to become one of the bosses from the SAO MMO and BITES A PLAYER.
Lets look at the facts again. ILLUSION. Not transformation or anything similar. ILLUSION. You shouldn't be able to hurt anyone like Kirito did with an illusion. But it's okay! Because he is Gary Stue! Therefore his spells breaks the game.

Kirito beats a highly skilled player in ALO.

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

There is nothing wrong with that. Except for one detail. That player was wearing the best gear you could obtain the game so far, and Kirito was wearing VENDOR TRASH. But it's okay, thanks to his Gary Stue powers and by stealing his cousin's weapon, he powered up 1000x times and owned everyone.

Lets not forget that the creator of this show is trying to pander to every fanservice group there is.
Big boobs? Check. Loli? Check. Implied incest brother/sister love? Check (I know they are cousins, Kirito doesn't and before it was revealed nobody else did). TENTACLE RAPE? Check. Boring characters with little to no personality? Check. Make it easy for fans to self-insert into the characters? Check.

Every female character in this game apparently can't handle their own troubles. But it's okay, because Kirito is ready to save the day for the HELPLESS WOMEN.

Asuna was helpless against pressure. Asuna loves cooking (hurf durf women kitchen sandwich), she is apparently *perfect*, she is submissive towards Kirito almost all the time. Oh and lets not forget:

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

I like Asuna's parents. Because they are just doing what's best for their daughter! Marrying her off to a man who is twice as old and they don't even know if she approves of it or not! Or if she loves anyone else. After all, family doesn't matter - money does. Oh and a stupid plot.

Anyway, enough about the SAO MMO.

The new bad guy in the ALO arc is the blandest shittiest bad guy ever.

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

He has zero depth to his personality. It's just "haha I'm super evil! I will torment these players and get valuable mind control data, and get super rich! And I'll steal this woman from you because I can! Oh, and I might brain-wash her, because I can. There is no real motive behind. Just because I'm evil. You know. Evil. That's why. Evil and CREATING A FALSE IMPENDING DOOM OF NTR - Oh what was that about pandering to every fetish and whatnot? Yeahh......

Sorry, but the light novels are hardly better.

This show had tons of potential, but it squandered most of it because it wanted to pander to the audience sexual desires. And I'm getting tired of the SO ANGSTY Kirito. Mostly I'm just tired of him being Gary Stue.

Oh and did I mention that Kirito is an MMO addict? Because he is. Just re-watch that scene where the bartender dude shows him the ALO game. He was clearly more focused on the game itself and keen on playing it, and than rescuing Asuna - till the bartende dude just coughed to break the MMO-addiction-spell. Kirito's "flawless never back down" moral compass gets tedious as well.

At the end of the day, I only watch this show to laugh at how bad it is.

Here, have an image that sum up the current arc of SAO quite nicely:

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

Not sure if you copy and pasted this, but if you didn't, I'm really impressed. I actually agree on all these points. Kirito is a Gary Stue character. But I rarely see a Gary Stue character in all the animes I watched. All the battles I've seen Kirito in, he has won. And that admin guy pretty much cheated so that's how Kirito lost before. But I think they did it for a reason. Asuna was a bad heroine. Some of her repetitive tsundere crap got in my nerves. I'm alright with the loli crap, because the anime proves a point about MMO's being infested with little 8-12 year olds. Man I hate those kids. But yeah. I reckon they tried to make Kirito way too badass. But that's not the only thing I was concerned about. Because there was something I actually HATED about the anime.

THE DIALOGUE WAS WAY TOO CHEESY!

The sad thing is, I've watched all the episodes of the show, read all the light novels, even did a bit of fanart (Mostly just for the sake of having something to draw) and despite all of this I agree with most of these points. Sword Art Online is a show best watched with your brain switched "Off", for if that brain turns on, the beast will be unchained and you will spiral into a frenzy of nerd rage. I don't mind things like incest, or the parent-child relationship that SAO has going on, what I DO mind is the fact that out of the main group of SAO 'Protagonists' which includes Kazuto, Suguha, Asuna, Sicilia, Liz, Yui, Shino, Agil, and Klein, FIVE of them have affection towards Kirito. And out of the three that don't, only one of them is a girl. So five out of the six main female protagonists have a thing for Kirito? Honestly, if I was asked to classify this show's genre I'd be quite tempted to put 'Harem'.

That all aside, while I enjoyed the light novels as something to read, coming back to the anime was a pretty rough transition. It just feels so lacking (obviously) and, well, awkward to watch. I'm sure it was addressed, but I didn't read all the posts so let me say that there really wasn't enough side story there to actually sustain the SAO arc through the rest of the show. Quite honestly, while it might not fit even thirteen episodes, the show would probably benefit from either sticking to only the first volume of the light novels (Just Kirito and Asuna), or at least having ALO be a season two, with Kirito limping out of the hospital as an ending point.

Hopefully my thoughts didn't come out too disjointed, and I must apologize if they did.